Click on pictures above to link to related You Tube videos. Pictured above on the right is Thelma Barros, one of the most politically active Mandela residents in Boston, fighting for her home ownership that was promised by Beacon Residential Properties, but was never delivered. Her apartment, along with the apartments of over 1,500 African American and Hispanic residents, have been converted into a non-affordable condominiums solely for the purpose of selling them off to the White Elite in the City of Boston.

A Draft Transcript Of The Mandela Dedication Ceremony At Roxbury Community College(Aired on the City Hall Cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Howard Cohen:Governor, Mayor, for the last year I have been letting my partner speak first and I am starting to feel this is totally unfair... .(jokes).I see on my right Dr. Brown & the Mandela Rowing Team. For those of you who don't know, the last several years, Dr. Brown had done a remarkable thing at Mandela by brining together a group of terrific kids from the neighborhood and forming the nations first Afro-American Rowing Team. It is now rowed head of the Charles and all across the country, in Canada, and next year will go international, if I remember correctly. Dr. Brown's work has really been as ... as a string change at Mandela and is a real bright side to us and the community. We have terrific cooperation from all of the agencies that assisted the Development of Housing in the City, in particular the Federal Bank, my old boss who can not be with us today John Eller, the Mass. Housing Partnership, the City, everybody really came together. We had a terrific cooperation between Fleet Bank and P&C, in which we asked them to be pretty gutsy and maybe even some stupid things. We didn't give them much time to think about it either. Everybody really pulled together to make this happen. Good business people don't usually thank people who lost money in their deals, at least they don't thank them publicly. But, an unusual twist, we want to thank people who lost a lot of money in Mandela that's the creditors of the former owner, millions were lost by Winter Hill Bank, the City of Boston, the Boston Redevelopment Authority. At the end they all came together and realized it was more important to stop fighting and trust in the community and to turn their buildings over to us, so we can get on the work with the community, and their all terrific. It toke a host extremely able bankruptcy and real estate lawyers to rest this property from its former owner and to close the transaction. Stephen Gray & Bruce Erickson from the Federal Court Bankruptcy Trustees and Paul Moore, their council with years of threats and insults. The cities lawyers Saul Schapiro, Nina Lawburk, and of course our legal team: Kirk Jackson, Paul McCatta, Mince Levin, and my favorite general council Kathleen Sheen worked hours & hours & nights & weeks to make this a reality. We also want to thank our__ friends at the Boston HUD Office, who often are not thanked, because benmd me scenes they continue to work little pieces ol Federal Magic; They kept our section eight going-- and a lot of other things to make this happen. At one pointevery great story there is a moment of truth requiring a here or in our case a heroine to take the big risk at the critical junction of Mandela. We called upon Jane Gumball and her mighty rowing crew at DHDD to make it cleaTto'the bankruptcy that the necessary state funding would be available if the court approved the bankruptcy plan. Without this step, it had become perfectly clear that the court was going to dismiss the case and turn the project back to" who knows what end. Jane knew that whatever she did would be the source ot litigation, threats, calls to the Governor's office, and intimidation. She had every reason not to trust anybody in this transaction and no reason to get involved transaction, except for one. That reason was the right thing to do and she did it. She toke the heat and mage Glenn's and------dream come true. We want to offer a special thanks to Jane Gumball.__________________________________________________ A Draft Transcript Of The Mandela Dedication Ceremony At Roxbury Community College(Aired on the City Hall Cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Governor Paul CellucciWe celebrate a couple of things today. First of all, partnership between Mandela Coopertive Association & Beacon Residential Properties, to redevelop the Mandela Apartments. This means we'll have safe affordable housing for the Mandela residents. I do want to congratulate Glenn Hall & Residents, because they fought for what they believed in and they prevailed. I know it hasn't been an easy course, but where here today to celebrate what they have done and to celebrate the partnership that they have put together. And in the larger sense we celebrate this city and we celebrate the urban areas of our state. ---------- believes our cities have to be economic engineers for our community & regions which they consist.As important as economic growth is, as a job for families and their standard of living and for their quality of life. Cities consist of neighborhoods and cities have to be livable, and to be livable we have to have housing and we have to have affordable housing. In a large extent we celebrate the great progress that has been made in the City of Boston and the leadership of Mayor Menino. Someone who is absolutely committed to the neighborhoods, we celebrate this working relationship between the neighborhoods, the City Gvt., the State Gvt., I am very happy to present------------Rushing. I also saw Gloria Fox, and I know Senator Diane Wogerson also worked very hard to make sure State Gvt., could be a full partner here. I do want to thank Jane Gumball, because I know other extraordinary effort to make sure we could arrive at this day. State Gvt., has allocated about $9 MILLION in tax credits, loans, and grants so we can rededicate , and so we can redevelop the Mandela Apartments, so we can celebrate this extraordinary partnership, we celebrate this great city, and we certainly celebrate the cooperation between the neighborhoods, the City Gvt., and the State Gvt. I can tell you as long as I am sitting up there at the Governors Office, we will continue to work with our cities, we will continue to work with our neighbors to make sure that we have a good quality of life for every citizen of our Commonwealth.Thank You, Very Much.__________________________________________________A Draft Transcript Of The Mandela Dedication Ceremony At Roxbury Community College(Aired on the City Hall Cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Jane Wallace Gumball:I recall a conversation with Howard and I said this is making me nervous and he said that's okay, just do the right thing. The nice thing is that I get to do the right thing, the Governor lets me do the right thing. As the Director of Department Housing and Community Development, I in general get too wear two hats. I am able to allocate a tremendous amount of resources for the State's Affordable Housing Commitment. I also represent communities,and the neighborhoods, and the revitalization on a community level. Today, I think were here to celebrate both my hats. We have? a project that we will see 276 affordable units preserved, ones that were terribly threatened and we survived that. I think the rowing team rowing team is a perfect neighborhood revitalization, a commitment to the community, and so here I am wearing both hats and that's a delightful opportunity for me. I think failing by name to thank everyone , I will thank no one specifically, and then I would not have missed anyone. Its important to recognize the real partnership that went into the rededification that went into the property of Mandela. If it weren't for the commitment of the public sector at level of State Gvt., City Gvt., Federal Gvt., we wouldn't be here today. It went beyond that it was the residents as Glenn so eloquently put it, he just didn't accept no\ The Private Sector was involved with financing and I think that the partnership is the key to my continuing to do my job, A job that I enjoy. I want to introduce to you the person who lets me do my job, and one as you know says he even loves his job more than I love mine. A special partner in this deal is Governor Paul Celluci who allocated millions of dollars of resources to make this dream come true for all of the residents for the community. I am delighted to be here with the Governor and introduce him to you.Thank You__________________________________________________A Draft Transcript Of The Mandela Dedication Ceremony At Roxbury Community College(Aired on the City Hall Cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Mayor Thomas MeninoThank you. Chuck, Governor Celluci, representative of FOX, and the representative of----------. Ladies & Gentlemen & Glenn, I would like to talk to you about the investments in Roxbury. You give a great compelling competing talk this morning and well talk about our investments in this community over the last 4 years. It's'my pleasure to be here to celebrate rehabilitate of Mandela homes. What does rehabilitation means? It means rehabilitation of neighborhoods. People having the opportunity to live in a decent sanitary safe house. Why did that happen? Its because of the prevalence of the residents over so many years. I can remember getting all those letters that came into my office about their concerns about those units. People came together on this issue the State, the City, the Private Sector and the tenants who drove the issue. So, today is a real celebration of a partnership, a rehabilitation of three different housing developments within the City of Boston. I hope I will be standing here next few months to pronounce more projects like this. We create in housing, we desperately need it. We talk about the homelessness in the City of Boston there only talking about the #'s in shelters. What about the #'s that are doubling & tripling up in apartments in Dorchester, in Roxbury, in Hyde Park, in S. Boston, that's homelessness also. For those people are fortunate enough to have relatives who will take them in. We do have a crisis in America on affordability and in Mass. were dealing with it, were dealing with it on an effective manner. We have to do more. We need this collaboration that we have here this morning. This celebration of 276 units for people who deserve decent housing.Thank You, Very Much.__________________________________________________A Draft Transcript Of The Mandela Dedication Ceremony At Roxbury Community College(Aired on the City Hall Cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Gareth Saunders (City Councilor):Good morning! Mayor Menino, friends and neighbors, the Mandela crew, Dr. Brown, Pasteur Thomas, and other representatives, Gloria Fox and Bar&Rushing. Good morning, welcome Mayor Menino to district that I am so proud to represent, welcome Mayor Menino. This is a very special day for me, because in 1988 I had an opportunity to start working with the residents of the Mandela Development. When I worked with the United South & Settlements and at that time we were going to do some tenant organizing work, but we couldn't, because there was a division with the tenants at that time. We all know that a house divided against it self can not stand and that is the lesson that we learned through this whole long process. We couldn't help them then, but today the residents got together, came together as a unit and that is why were able to see the fruits of their labor today. I would like to say thank you to a number of people involved : the people who spoke before me, the recovery group were very much involved. Governor Celluci, Mayor Menino and his administration and other elected officials that are here, because you have not been able to see the work we have done behind the scenes. There was a meeting were representative Rushing, Senator Wilkerson, representative Fox and myself. We got into a room and we talked to all our players and we demanded that they would do right by our people... Let me warn you this is just the beginning and just like the State, the City, and the private developers have their interest. You, the residents must protect your interest. Remember that, watch the diligently and keep the faith.Thank You.__________________________________________________A Draft Transcript Of The Mandela Dedication Ceremony At Roxbury Community College(Aired on the City Hall Cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Joseph FlatelyWe are a private Co., set up by banks to invest in affordable housing and today we invested over 325,000,000.00 in affordable housing project around the state, about $150,000,000.00 in the City of Boston. We invested over $30,000,000.00 in properties directly adjacent to this one. I have to say when I first stated learning about this project and what it was going through, it was about 18 months ago. I was talking to Tom 0' Malley, who at the time was on the Board of Directors and I asked him what he was doing on his time and he explained to me that he was on this project and kind of went into a lot of the gruesome details at that time. I have to say that my initial reaction was that he was spending his time on it and I wasn't. It was truly a very difficult and challenging situation. One that at the time because of all the challenges were even more difficult than it could be overcome. Fast forward 18 months later, here we are investing all together about $17,000,000.00 in this project. We clearly are happy and proud to be participant here. This is our single largest housing development that we made in our history. We did so not out of philanthropy, not out of charity, were doing this because we think this is a good investment. Its really a tribute to the sponsors, to Howard, Glenn that they convinced us that it was a good investment. So, were here today to congratulate people, were glad to be a part of this to be partners. I think the message is not only to celebrate what's been accomplished, but to use what has been accomplished in the challenges that have been overcome. As an inspiration for all of us to try to take on the remaining challenges, there are many facing Boston and our nation.A Draft Transcript Of The Mandela Dedication Ceremony At Roxbury Community College(Aired on the City Hall Cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Vincent McCarthy (MA Housing Partnership Fund).Fifteen, maybe thirteen years ago, Mayor Flynn asked me to prepare a report to the BRA. Tom 0' Mally was even than working on housing projects at the BRA on the future of what was then Westminster-Willard. What I saw at that point in tie was a project that was hopelessly under financial water with a very difficult owner, and I will leave it at that. There were a handful of tenants one of whom Anthony Lycourgeous is no longer with us, but he was such a beacon of light in those days when it was the darkest days for Westminster-Willard, which soon became Mandela. So, it's a real honor to be here today to see something come of great value ofthose^days, those very difficult days. I also want to say that if Mandela is about anything its about perservalence, one of the great spiritual virtues rarely talked about. Persevalence ------ peoples willingness to hang in there for a long time to make things happen, and its about a very, very strong sense of the community. The Mayor and the Governor are both to be commended for the extraordinary staff that they have assembled and given the green light too, in their perspective eras of power to make housing happen. I think everybody in this room knows, in fact, if you asked any of us 5 years ago if the city would become as wealthy as it has become, we would have said NO WAY, not in a lifetime.Thank You.__________________________________________________(Aired on tne City Hall cable Station in the month of February, 1998)Rahman TaqwaBefore I begin, I want to pause in a moment of silence in memory of----------. Who is really the Queen Mother from my perspective of this effort. I must begin everything for the all mighty God, who in the Arabic language we call this proper name the magnificent, the merciful, by bearing witness that no one deserves worship besides him and the Muhammad indeed as his servant and messenger. I greet all my family, friends, allies and peace of all servants of God from the first to the last, including Jesus Christ. We say it in the Arabic language----------------In Hebrew----------------.In English-peace be upon you. That's a greeting, it's a prayer, but it's also an injunction. Peace be upon you, peace obligates you to proliferate peace, but there can be no peace in the absence of justice. I am here today for economic justice and that's what this is about today, economic justice. I moved to Mandela four years ago as reluctantly as Joan Taletilknima. When I got here I saw the situation that Michelin described a very clever man manipulating the tenats association like a pie piper. I pondered the situation and he had me fooled and charmed for a minute, but when I started asking questions he pulled me in his office and said: "listen up dude, its not about right or wrong it's a about money. Me and my lawyers we have all the money we can do whatever we want. What do you want them to do? So, I said to him, I want you to do right because these are my people and I want for them what I want for myself. At that point we became advoceries. To make a long story short, I stood on the roof at 8 Nucome St., and saw Mandela with my friend Carl Erickson and we looked down at Mandela and he said to me what if we get the Tenats Association a real lawyer, and what if we find a broker, and what if we find a developer, and make this thing a reality and stop this man from jerking our people around. I asked him one question. Why can't we? He said no reason, so he went to work and he recommended a real lawyer Kirk Jackson (would you please stand up), and he recommended us a real broker Rachael Goldberg (would you please stand). She found us our development partner Howard Cohen and he recommended a CPA Daniel Dennis (will you please stand) and the board at that time under the leadership of the previous president Abdul (please stand). The board approved, so we went back to work. So, Mr. Abdul burnt out and passed the butane to our President, Glenn Hall who pushed this thing to a reality. Our unity got us respect and our respect got us allies. Don't worry brother no one can drive a wedge between me and you. As long as you continue to stand on principles of righteousness and I continue to stand on principles of righteousness, I have your back. The only thing that can drive a wedge between you and I, is one of us get tricked, because none of us our beyond getting tricked. If we are tricked into a principle of righteousness than that would drive a wedge, it won't be a permanent wedge, because once we discover we have been tricked we know the steps of recogonsialition and responsibility, and that will remove the wedge. Those who are former-------- Tom 0' Malley, Public Facilities Department came on board and allies to numerous to mention. So, we moved on with the unity of a rowing team striking the water, which is a beautiful thing and that unity got us to that milestone that we are celebrating today. Congratulations Mandela, keep up the good work.